On March 24, P & G rushed to hot search for controversial content. It is understood that the official account of Procter & Gamble member center has published an article called “5 times the foot odor of a woman”.
The reporter of Securities Daily asked P & G for confirmation. The relevant person in charge of P & G China told the reporter, “we solemnly apologize for the improper content of a recent article on the account of P & G member center and the disrespect for women. P & G has always advocated the values of equality, tolerance and respect. We have deleted this article and seriously rectified the operation of the account. We will deeply reflect and prevent similar situations from happening again.”
After the fermentation, P & G’s sub brands were listed by netizens, and some consumers sent microblogs to resist.
according to the Southwest Securities Co.Ltd(600369) Research Report, P & G is the largest consumer goods company in China. P & G’s official website also shows that there are more than 20 brands in China, such as SK-II, Olay, haifeisi, Pantene, crest and hushubao.
According to the financial report of P & G in the second quarter of fiscal year 2022 (three months to December 31, 2021), the company includes five businesses and ten categories: Beauty (hair care, skin and personal care), beauty (shaving care, electrical appliances), health care (oral care, personal health care), fabric and home care, baby women and home care.
According to the financial report data, P & G’s net sales in the second fiscal quarter reached US $21 billion, with a market estimate of US $20.35 billion; Excluding the impact of acquisition and divestiture business transactions and foreign exchange rates, organic revenue increased by 6% in the quarter, higher than expected. The net profit in the same period was US $4.22 billion, a year-on-year increase of 10%.
It is worth mentioning that the highest proportion of P & G’s net sales in various categories is fabric care, accounting for 22%. The brands operating in this category in China are mainly Bilang, dangni and tide; Women’s care accounts for only 6%, ranking second from the bottom of the ten categories. The brands operating in this category in China are mainly Shuyin, danbisi and hushubao.
Although the proportion of female nursing in P & G’s overall performance is not high, P & G still occupies the primary position in China’s female nursing market. According to the data of China Business Industry Research Institute, the top four brands of female nursing sales on e-commerce platforms such as “double 11” tmall, jd.com and pinduoduo in 2021 are foreign-funded enterprises. P & G’s hushubao ranks first in sales, followed by Sophie, gaojiesi and Le Erya.
This also means that P & G has a large number of female users in China. But why would such a problem arise?
“It’s normal for P & G to be boycotted this time, because from the current environment, this kind of move is easy to annoy Chinese consumers, especially involving gender issues.” Jiang Han, a senior researcher of Pangu think tank, told the Securities Daily that even giants will “Miss” in the control of marketing content. In fact, some marketing with their own traffic has the risk of causing controversy.
In fact, it is not only P & G that has apologized for falling into gender disputes in the past two years.
In February 2021, talk show actor Li danyin brought goods for women’s underwear brand ubras on his microblog, and released a microblog with the copywriting of “an equipment for women to easily lie down and win the workplace”. Afterwards, he was punished by Beijing Haidian District Market Supervision Bureau. The notice shows that it violates the relevant provisions of the advertising law, and the content of the copy is vulgar and insults women’s dignity. At the same time, underwear brand ubras also apologized quickly after the fermentation of the incident.
In addition, the daily necessities brand cotton era also released a video advertisement for men following women in order to promote makeup remover products last year, which aroused the resistance and dissatisfaction of female users. Finally, the brand apologized and deleted the advertisement.
“In the current environment, for the brand side, we must consider understanding the situation of the whole market while marketing. We should not only understand who the specific audience of marketing is, but also master the sensitivity of the whole market. Only in this way can we promote the follow-up publicity and development of the brand.” Jiang Han added.
